One of the three accused in the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) case has filed an application for all 26 alternative charges made against him be dropped.

NONEHead of the Forfeiture Property Unit, Prosecution Division of the Attorney-General's Chambers Dzulkifli Ahmad told the Klang Sessions Court (which sat in Shah Alam) today that Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) chief operating officer Stephen Abok (left), 52, filed the application last Monday.

As such, Dzulkifli requested the court for time to respond to Stephen's application.

Judge Asmadi Hussin then set Jan 11 next year to hear Stephen's application.

Stephen, former KDSB project manager Law Jenn Dong, 52, and architect Bernard Tan Seng Swee, 49, of BTA Architect, had pleaded not guilty on Nov 8 this year to 24 alternative charges of cheating OSK Trustees Bhd, involving payment of RM116.85 million to KDSB for two projects at PKFZ.

They were alleged to have committed the offences at OSK Trustees Bhd, Plaza OSK Ampang between June 30, 2006 and June 20, 2008.

The three men are charged with cheating and dishonestly inducing OSK Trustees to believe that the electrical infrastructure works of a 33kv system for PKFZ, Pulau Indah, had been implemented when they knew it was not.   

NONELaw (right), Stephen and Tan are also charged with cheating OSK Trustees into believing that the 33kv system to Precinct 2 and Precinct 8 for the PKFZ project had been implemented when they knew that it was not.

The action had prompted OSK Trustees to make payment totalling RM116.85 million.

Apart from that, Stephen and Tan also pleaded not guilty last Nov 8 to two other alternate charges of cheating OSK Trustees by dishonestly inducing OSK Trustees into believing that the 33kv system to Precinct 2 and Precinct 8 for the PKFZ project had been implemented, and this had prompted OSK Trustees to make payment of RM5.42 million to KDSB.

The offences were allegedly committed between July 31, 2007 and Oct 8, 2008.

No one complained of being cheated

Prior to this, Stephen and Tan had pleaded not guilty to two counts of cheating the Port Klang Authority (PKA) by making false claims amounting to RM5.42 million on July 31 and Sept 21, 2007.

Tan and Law are charged with 24 counts of cheating PKA to obtain payment of RM116.85 million to KDSB involving two projects between June 30, 2006 and May 30, 2008.

Stephen, in his supporting affidavit, said he had been advised by his counsel, Hisham Teh Pok Teik, that all the charges made against him were baseless.

"To my knowledge, OSK Trustees Bhd had never complained to me or KDSB that it had been cheated," he added.

Instead, he said, OSK Trustees, in a statement published by Financial Daily dated Nov 10, 2010, stated that it was not aware of any cheating.

At today's hearing, Law was represented by lawyer Tan Hock Chuan, while Tan was represented by V Sithambaram.

Court to decide on law firm

Meanwhile, the court has fixed this Friday to decide on an application by Law to disqualify the legal firm of Skrine & Co from holding a watching brief for Port Klang Authority (PKA).
   
Judge Asmadi set the date after hearing submissions from all parties. Skrine was represented by lawyer Leong Wai Hong.

Lawyer Tan, in his submission, said that the application was made on grounds that two of the partners in the legal firm - lawyers Vinayak Pradhan and Lim Chee Wee - were members of the Special Task Force (STF) set up by the Transport Ministry last year to investigate the case.

Hence, he said, Skrine, through Vinayak and Lim, had access to information on the outcome of the investigation by the STF on the implementation of the PKFZ project.

He said the outcome of the investigation by STF was used by PKA chairman Lee Hwa Beng as the basis to lodge a police report against Law.

As such, he said, Skrine had no right to hold a watching brief for PKA in the case because the firm had access to confidential information on the investigation of the case.

Apart from that, both lawyers might be called as witness in the hearing of the case, he added.

Tan also submitted that this was not denied by Lee in his affidavit-in-reply to the application to disqualify Skrine.

Meanwhile, Leong submitted that the firm had never represented the three accused in the case and that as observer it would not be directly involved in the hearing.

He also said that although Lee lodged a police report against the three accused, they were prosecuted based on police investigations.

Dzulkifli said the prosecution would leave to the court to decide the matter.

- Bernama